Side Dish

Papaningo was all but destroyed just weeks before its original opening when the floodwaters of Gaston filled it with mud; now it will be among the first in the neighborhood to open with Shockoe Bottom relief-fund seed money. (Bottoms Up Pizza, long-awaited in its reconstruction, also returns any day now, with Havana '59 aiming for the end of the month.)

What Estevez hopes will happen in his lively, colorful shack is that construction workers for a potential ballfield in the Bottom will come for the daily all-you-can-eat island buffet, and that the late-night crowd will gravitate there for shrimp scampi, jerk chicken and tropical drinks on the weekends, island music always playing.

Watch for a new look at the already-showy Can Can when it opens newly installed windows onto the Carytown streetscape that will open accordion-style as weather permits. Renovations at Emilio's and The Hill Cafe are also complete, and the Martini Kitchen & Bubble Bar is poised to open in the former Main Street Beer Company.  Deveron Timberlake

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